Fathers and Sons Irony

Fathers and Sons Irony

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Written by Nicola Francisc

Failed love

In an attempt to make Bazarov like Pavel, Arkady tells Bazarov about Pavel’s failed love from his youth. Bazaroz ridicules Pavel for falling in love with a woman and then let himself be destroyed by the fact that she doesn’t love her back. Bazarov criticizes Pavel harshly and even makes him seem less of a man because of the feelings he had at a certain point for a woman in his life. The situation becomes ironic towards the end of the novel when the reader sees Bazarov follow into Pavel’s footstep after he falls in love with Anna. Bazarov’s feelings for Anna are destructive for him and just like Pavel, Bazarov becomes unable to work and do the things he did before he meets Anna after he is rejected by her. Bazarov becomes slowly a younger version of Pavel, the man he ridiculed in the past for the feeling he had for a woman.

Egoism

From the first moment Bazarov and Pavel saw each other, a mutual dislike formed between them and the feeling only deepened as the novel progressed. Pavel tries to attack Bazarov with every occasion he has and on multiple occasions, Pavel makes it clear that he thinks that Bazarov is very egoistic and proud. Pavel leaves the impression that he thinks about himself that he is humble but the other characters in the book criticize him ironically as being a very proud and stiff person, having thus many things in common with Bazarov.

Emancipated woman

When Madame Kukshina is introduced, she is presented as the emancipated woman, who decided to separate from her husband and live on her own. She is presented as having modern ideas and feminist ideas but despite this, she is ironically presented as being a superficial woman. Her knowledge is also superficial and despite the wanting to appear as an educated woman, she appears at the ball wearing soiled gloves and behaves in a manner that would indicate that she is uneducated.

Medicine

From the beginning of the novel, Bazarov shows a great interest in medicine and in what modern medicine can do. Ironically, the science he praised and studied cannot save him in the end, nor save his from suffering a painful death.

Dependent

In an ironic twist of events, Bazarov, the character who from the beginning leaves the impression that he needs no one and that is happy to be alone, falls in love with a woman who can’t love him back and becomes dependent on her attention and affection.